Adam Behan at the Dublin Review of Books:
In the flurry of literature and comment since 2021, a relatively settled version of O’Connor’s life has taken shape, the kind reproduced in books like Allyson McCabe’s Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters and Ariane Sherine’s The Real Sinéad O’Connor. First is her childhood (1966-’85). Second is her rise to fame (1985-’92). Third is most of her career (1993-2015). And fourth is what could be called her ‘comeback’ (2015-’23). But these are never equally weighted: her rise to fame dominates most accounts, and is, for instance, the sole focus of Kathryn Ferguson’s documentary Nothing Compares (2022). Even in larger versions, her SNL appearance is often framed as a kind of culminating point of her career more generally, which is why it comes at around the halfway mark of McCabe’s and Sherine’s books. (Even Adele Bertei’s Sinéad O’Connor’s Universal Mother, which focuses on her 1994 LP, includes a chapter about SNL as a preamble.) At first, this seems like an obvious chronological move to make, but it is also indicative of how little critical attention has been paid to most of O’Connor’s career since 1993. Not much is usually said about this period that goes beyond brief overviews of the albums and familiar headlines concerning Miley Cyrus and Dr Phil. This is also true of Rememberings, raising all sorts of questions about the influence that her memoir has had on how we think about her life and music more generally.
more here.
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